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Rasmussen wins tough mountain stage, grabs Tour lead
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On the lead-up to the 2007 Tour de France, Michael Rasmussen proclaimed that a third straight polka-dot jersey was not his No. 1 ambition. The Danish climbing specialist was targeting a place on the final podium in Paris. Sunday Rasmussen took a big step to making that dream come true, winning the brutal stage 8 run between Le Grand Bornand to Tignes, and taking over the race lead in the process.
The Rabobank rider shot out of the main field midway through the 165km, six categorized-climbs run to Tignes, then methodically picked off the remnants of an 18-man breakaway until he was alone at the front. From there the former world mountain bike champion tapped out an unmatchable tempo that stopped the clock in 4:49:40, giving Rasmussen his third career Tour stage victory and a 43-second lead over former GC leader Linus Gerdemann (T-Mobile).
“Two years ago I came pretty close to ending up on the podium if I hadn’t been fiddling around on pavement,” remembered Rasmussen of his disastrous crash-riddled time trial. “It’s crossed my mind that one time in the future if the [route] was in my favor [that could be rectified]. I think this could be the year.”
Spaniard Iban Mayo (Saunier Duval-Prodir) moved up to third overall, at 2:39, after taking second Sunday. Countryman Alejandro Valverde (Caisse D'Epargne) finished the day in third at 3:12, with both riders playing central roles in an epic final climb battle that saw all the expected overall contenders save one having to show their cards.
T-Mobile's Michael Rogers was the missing man. The Aussie crashed hard on the descent of the Cormet de Roseland, the first of three successive cat. 1 climbs that concluded the stage. Rogers slammed into the guardrail moments after Spaniard David Arroyo (Caisse d'Epargne) went flipping over it.
Initially it appeared both riders had escaped serious injury, chasing back to the front of the race where Rasmussen was now leading a group of four. But Rogers soon succumbed to the impact of his fall, abandoning the race.
It was a dreadful day for the German-based team, which lost the yellow jersey, its team leader, and saw the withdrawal of young British sprinter Mark Cavendish about an hour into the stage. The carnage didn't stop there. After the race Patrik Sinkewitz reportedly struck a fan on his way to the team hotel and was taken to the hospital with a suspected broken nose. With the outcome of the stage all but decided when Rasmussen dropped his last two companions, Astana's Toni Colom and the resilient Arroyo, the real fireworks began back in the bunch on the day's final climb, the cat. 1 Montée de Tignes.
Making the initial selection was a star-studded group that included Mayo, Valverde, Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto), Christophe Moreau (Ag2r), Discovery Channel teammates Alberto Contador, Levi Leipheimer and Yaroslav Popovych, Carlos Sastre and Frank Schleck (both CSC), Denis Menchov (Rabobank), Gerdemann, and the Astana trio of Andreas Klöden, Andrey Kashechkin and Alexandre Vinokourov.
Moreau was the first to take a big dig, his red, white and blue French national champions jersey a blur as he shot out of the bunch. The response was rapid, with Mayo, Popovych, Schleck, Contador, Valverde, Evans and Kashechkin all jumping across.
Popovych couldn't keep the pace and Contador suffered an untimely rear tire puncture. But the remaining six initially held together, with Moreau launching numerous attacks that were covered by Valverde and then Mayo.
Mayo was once considered a threat to Lance Armstrong's Tour reign after finishing sixth in 2003, then beating the American at the following year's Dauphiné Libéré. But the Spaniard failed to live up to the hype, and he has been a virtual non-factor at the Tour ever since. On this day though, Mayo managed to escape the Moreau group near the finish, taking second for himself.
Back in the bunch Gerdemann dropped off the pace, while Klöden spent extended time at the front, trying to limit Vinokourov’s loses.
It was a reversal of fortune from the previous day for the pair of stage 5 crash victims. On stage 6 Klöden looked to be suffering far worse from his fractured coccyx than Vino' with his stitched up knees and elbow. But Sunday Vino' was clearly the weaker man. After an acceleration by Contador split up the second chase, Klöden was forced to sit up and fall back to his captain.
“I don’t feel any pain in the knees, but I had some cramps in the legs,” said Vinokourov, who patted Klöden on the back in an expression of gratitude after the pair finally crossed the finishline. “I wasn't bad until the final 3km and it was really hard. We will see what happens in the coming days. If I am feeling better, I will attack. There's still hope. You cannot forget the time trials and the Pyrenees, which are very hard this year. This Tour isn't finished."
The Astana teammates crossed the line 18th and 19th, 4:29 behind Rasmussen. That was one spot ahead of Gerdemann, who almost held onto the yellow jersey, and will likely become the de facto T-Mobile team leader with Rogers out of the race.
Leipheimer also failed to find his best legs, finishing 12th at 3:59, not able to respond to Moreau's initial attacks that split the marquee group.
"I was just following and trying to stay steady," the Discovery team leader said. "It's a long race. I was okay today but I wasn't super. I think I'll be better in the Pyrenees. Today I had to limit losses on guys like Moreau and Mayo, the guys who are riding better than me right now."
Leipheimer also had to endure a bike change when his chain wrapped around his derailleur on the descent of the Roseland.
"That was tough because the peloton was in pieces so I had to go through a lot of dropped riders to get back on," added the California resident, who benefited from a lengthy car-aided push while his team mechanic leaned out the back window to address an apparent mechanical issue with his replacement bike.
The damage to Leipheimer, Vino' and fellow GC contenders Sastre and Menchov could have been far worse were in not for the incessant infighting in the Moreau group. The Frenchman was the only rider willing to take initiative, while the rest just covered his moves, then sat on.
"No one wanted to take responsibility of the race," Moreau lamented. "I took the risks. I'm a little mad because the others wouldn't collaborate, especially Valverde. We could have taken more time on the others, especially Vinokourov. We can't give presents in the Tour."
Indeed, at one point the Moreau group was pulling away from the other contenders, but the lack of organization and a hard effort by Klöden behind limited their final gains.
"I didn't have the best legs today," admitted CSC leader Sastre. "[Teammate] Frank [Schleck] went with the Moreau attacks and I decided to be prudent. It was a very hard stage, a lot of changes in speed, windy, narrow roads. I watched Vinokourov until I saw that he couldn’t match the pace, and then I went with Menchov. Rasmussen is a good rider, and we know he likes these kinds of stages. But the Tour will be different for him now that he has the mailliot jaune. The Pyrenees will be very hard. We can't say too much now.”
Racing began on a warm Sunday afternoon, with light cloud cover and temperatures in the mid 80s. The day's tortuous menu included six rated climbs - including the three cat. 1s to finish the day. Between all that ascending there was very little flat terrain, making refueling tricky on this warm day.
The stage opened with 8 kilometers of downhill, and there were a slew of early attacks including a group of five containing Lilian Jegou (Francaise des Jeux), Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner), Stephane Auge (Cofidis), Marcel Sieberg (Milram) and Alexander Efimkin (Barloworld).
Their advantage never got above a minute, but the pressure back on the bunch was evident, with many of the sprinters getting dumped out of the field on the slopes of the opening ascent, the cat. 4 Col du Marais.
The reshuffling continued up and over the cat. 3 Cote de Bouchet-Mont-Charvin, before the day's first big break came together on the approach to the short but steep cat. 2 Col de Temie. Eighteen riders made the selection, including Rogers, David Millar (Saunier Duval-Prodir), Thomas Voeckler (Bouygues Telecom), Jens Voigt (CSC), Stéphane Goubert (Ag2r), Schumacher, Bernhard Kohl (Gerolsteiner) and George Hincapie (Discovery Channel).
By the time the bunch passed over the day's third summit, the gap to the leading 18 was 1:40, and that margin held steady on the run to the feedzone at Beaufort, 77km into the 165km stage.
Next came the cat. 1 Cormet de Roseland, a 19.9km push with an average grade of six percent. To no one's surprise Rabobank's climber extraordinaire Rasmussen went on the attack intent on reeling in the now-fractured breakaway.
With Arroyo in tow, Rasmussen started picking off riders, while up at the front Kohl made a desperate attempt to roll away on his own.
Moments later Rasmussen hooked up with fellow GC contender Rogers, with Arroyo and José Luis Arrieta (Ag2r) along for the ride. Ahead Kohl's solo move was over, as Astana's Colom and Christophe Le Mevel (Credit Agricole) latched onto his tail. Soon after Rasmussen stormed by the wayward leaders, then charged first over the top of the Roseland to take the first place KoM points. That moved the skinny Dane to second in the climbers' category, one spot behind Frenchman Sylvain Chavanel. By the end of the day he would be in first all alone.
Hincapie and six other breakaway remnants were next over the top, with the peloton cresting at 5:10.
Meanwhile, the front six now included Rasmussen, Rogers, Arroyo, Goubert, Kohl and Colom. Six became four on the descent when both Arroyo and Rogers overcooked a hard left hand turn on the Roseland descent. TV replays showed Rogers slamming into the guardrail just after Arroyo flipped over it. Amazingly the Spaniard wasn't badly hurt, climbing out of the trees, then over the guardrail, before jumping back on his bike.
Rogers wasn't so lucky. After dusting himself off and catching back onto the lead group, the extent of his injuries started to take their toll as ascent of the cat. 1 Montee d'Hauteville commenced. Soon Rogers was on the fast track to the back of the race, the Hincapie group and then the main field wheeling by the battered T-Mobile leader.
Finally Rogers pulled over on the right side of the road midway up the penultimate climb, dropped his head on his handlebars, then stepped off his bike and into the backseat of his team's black and pink Audi. A small gaggle of fans gathered around the car, politely clapping for the fallen rider.
Up front, Rasmussen was continuing to apply pressure and it wasn't long before it was just he and the TV moto driving to the finish in Tignes. At the line he didn't bother with a victory salute, more intent on making time than posing for photographers.
"I knew it would be pretty tight for the yellow jersey,” said Rasmussen about his low-key finish. “Today was about taking as much time out of my competitors as possible. As the day went on, [the yellow jersey] appeared to be a possibility. There are still two more weeks of racing and I still have 110km of time trials to negotiate. I’ve proven in the past that’s not exactly my specialty. Nothing has been decided yet."
Monday brings the first rest day of the 2007 Tour de France, with the race caravan enjoying a day off in Tignes. But the respite is short lived. Tuesday's stage 9 grind from Val-d'Isère to Briançon is one of the hardest days of the three-week race.
The 159.5km trip includes the Tour's highest mountain pass, the hors categorie Col de l'Iseran at 9085 feet, which the field will tackle straight out from the start line. That's followed by 70km of downhill and flats before the long ascent of the Col du Télégraphe (cat. 1) and on the to the Col du Galibier (hc).
After 35km of descending off the Galibier, there's a short, punchy 2km climb to the finish in Briançon that averages almost 7 percent.
Thirty-two Tour stages have finished in Briançon, the most recent in 2005 when Vinokourov beat Colombian Santiago Botero in a two-man break 1:15 ahead of the lead bunch. This year a small group is likely to contest the victory, with the true GC favorites almost surely involved in the final outcome.
Stage 8 – Results
1. Michael Rasmussen (Dk), Rabobank 4:49:40
2. Iban Mayo (Sp) Saunier Duval - Prodir, at 02:47
3. Alejandro Valverde (Sp) Caisse D’epargne, at 03:12
4. Christophe Moreau (F), Ag2r Prevoyance, at 03:13
5. Frank Schleck (Lux), Team CSC, at 03:13
6. Cadel Evans (Aus), Predictor - Lotto, at 03:13
7. Andrey Kashechkin (Kz) Astana, at 03:13
8. Alberto Contador (Sp), Discovery Channel Team, at 03:31
9. Denis Menchov (Rus), Rabobank, at 03:35
10. Carlos Sastre (Sp), Team CSC, at 03:35
11. Haimar Zubeldia (Sp), Euskaltel Euskadi, at 3:59
12. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Discovery Channel Team, at 03:59
Overall Standings, after 8 stages
1. Michael Rasmussen (Dk), Rabobank 15:37:42
2. Linus Gerdemann (G), T-Mobile Team, at 00:43
3. Iban Mayo (Sp) Saunier Duval - Prodir, at 02:39
4. Alejandro Valverde (Sp) Caisse D’epargne, at 02:51
5. Andrey Kashechkin (Kz) Astana, at 02:52
6. Cadel Evans (Aus), Predictor - Lotto, at 02:53
7. Christophe Moreau (F), Ag2r Prevoyance, at 03:06
8. Alberto Contador (Sp), Discovery Channel Team, at 03:10
9. Frank Schleck (Lux), Team CSC, at 03:14
10. Denis Menchov (Rus), Rabobank, at 03:19
11. Carlos Sastre (Sp), Team CSC, at 03:35
12. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Discovery Channel Team, at 03:43
To see how today's stage developed, simply CLICKHERE to open our Live Update Window and check back soon for results photos and more news and features than you can shake a stick at.
